Philadelphia's Gangster Government

 

The latest political scandal in Philadelphia was described in front page headlines of the Philadelphia Inquirer as a “Godfather Drama,” inferring gangster type manipulation of how power, public money, and contracts converge.  So far up the ladder do they converge that even members of the city’s law firms use language to imply that if you want to do business here “get used to it,” as this is a no-option town.

 

If John Grisham would write a factual account of how the government of the City of Philadelphia has run this city in concert with powerful developers, law firms on the payroll, corrupt judges and a one party political machine who bought out the other, it would never get published.  No reviewer would think it could come even close to being credible.  Yet, in a few months a small percentage of voters will do as they have been told and give this exact cabal a fresh bite at their city, its properties and their tax dollars.

 

It begins in 1968 when the Democratic Party which had done great things 20 years before in exposing and prosecuting 70 years of Republican corruption, decided that they “had enough” of reform, and decided to do the Republicans one better.  They have been quite successful, and the access to public money the Republicans never had gives them vote-buying power that a Boss Vare or Bernie Samuels could only dream of.

 

Forty-five years later they have it down to a science, and so dependent have citizens of this city become on the machine that no one dare speak publically against it, and this extends way beyond the patronage government jobs, quasi-government jobs at SEPTA, but to those professionals in all law firms, (not just the Ballard Spahr and others with steady city work) professional services that might need city contracts (architects, etc), educators and those in medicine and the teaching hospitals.  For you see, we have thrown most of the diverse industries out of our city and what remains are law, education and health care.  All of them survive on pubic money and they know who controls it. It is just that simple.

 

Voting for the Democratic machine is just an insurance policy, not unlike the insurance policies that Al Capone sold store owners against window breakage or accidental fires. Powerful elected and appointed officials can make or break any firm or business and nothing gets built that is not done by an inside developer; all arranged in the dark and that is true down to tree trimming.  Actually tree trimming is a very big contract and we all know whose orange trucks get all of it.

 

I could almost substitute characters from Ballard Spahr as I watched Grisham’s “The Firm” not too long ago, and the Machiavellian way the law is twisted by city officials and departments to guarantee outcomes and hide massive wrongdoing in the hundreds of millions. The neglect that has created a criminal sub-culture that is kept alive and pays very well for all those who run what may be a “replacement industry” since manufacturing left.  That would be the criminal/judicial/incarceration complex.  Crime is good business for many and there is really no major effort to make a change from the top.  We do have a new District Attorney, but the one who ran it for years proudly stated on live TV: “My office does not investigate municipal corruption” — it was a campaign promise.

 

Despite all the violent crime that just recently shot Philadelphia to national notoriety, it is that internal government/developer/legal system crime and that which has metastasized itself to much of the professional and working class as well that needs sunlight.  Bottom line, it’s pervasive.  Even when investigations are begun in city, state and the local U.S. Attorney’s office, there is little likelihood they will ever make it to prosecution if elected officials, or even second tier bureaucrats are involved - - and they are almost always involved.  Too many people know too much and their guarantee is what they know.  Investigations stop cold as some questionable judicial decision is made. They are shelved and no one ever asks to restart them, or they are transferred to another level of law enforcement where they are intentionally killed off, and that was the “order” in the first place.  You should be aware that the few investigations into misuse of public money and outrageous behavior of officials has begun outside this state and only got here through congressional mandate.

 

Why, you ask does this go unreported?  Well, that is another leg of the gangster government.  First they have eliminated the usual first line of public information and challenge to corrupt government - - the opposition party (or parties).  For all purposes there are none in this city.  The Republicans sold out and have been an appendage of the Democrats for at least the last 20 years.  They are 12-14% of the voter registration and they get 12-14% of the patronage, kickbacks, skimmed money and slush funds through patronage, non-profits and the like.  Then we have the mainstream press. With a few exceptions, when credible editors were in charge, they have been neutered or are full-fledged propaganda organs for the machine; as they are today.  Sure, some of the smaller entities (like ours) will print an expose from time to time, but through political contributions to the public media (WHYY) and “arrangements” by the influential, little of that is ever expanded into major investigative journalistic efforts.

 

Recently I asked two individuals I respect and who are very close to high level members of the political and judicial systems if they knew any judge, from either political party, who would listen to credible information that was serious enough to convene an investigating Grand Jury into wrongdoing at the city level.  I wanted to know if they believed they would do that without first calling the head of a political party for “permission.”  The answer in both cases:  “I know of no one.”

 

Clear enough.

 

Don’t forget to vote for the Politburo in November!

 

Jim Foster, Editor

Germantown Newspapers Inc

editor@germantownnewspapers.com